When Rhith Corp releases Nagant Wars, its latest VR-MMO, Dale Brown cannot wait to put on his Rhith-Suit and experience the most vivid, full-immersion world ever created.

With pleasure and pain set to mimic reality, Dale must navigate the dangers of war, face his personal failings, and learn who his friends truly are.

Set on the planet Almaach, the swords and sorcery aspect of the game is starkly contrasted to the potential dystopian nature of Dale's real life, which in 2040, contains the ever-increasing chance of global disaster.

My Opinion: 602 pages, $5.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited

This is the re-release of the Nagant Wars. It was originally published on Amazon in 2016 where it did really well. The author decided to pull the novel from the digital shelves when he realized the work wasn’t as good as he wanted it to be.

If you’ve never read the Nagant Wars, it’s story about a future where a virtual reality game takes the place of real war. Soldiers still feel pain when they are harmed or die in-game but there’s no real loss of life, property, or resources. This has been done before in stories like the Gam3, but this a fantasy setting for the VR game parts. There’s action, adventure, magic, and even a little romance. There’s also a speculative thread about what consequences there are for this type of war could have on the human mind, with conscripted VR soldiers getting PTSD. Good story.

If you’ve read the previous version of the Nagant Wars, the author has put some serious work into streamlining the story. It is a lot less erratic in places, some entire portions have been removed, and other have been added. It’s a lot more clear which parts of the story are in the VR game and which are in the real world. The princess has some added scenes.

The author has a message for people that may be considering re-reading Nagant Wars:

“Something magical happened in the re-writing, the characters became alive to me in a deeper and more significant way.

I think anyone that enjoys a large cast epic fantasy story will enjoy the new book even having read the first version. There is more dialogue, banter and joking around, and deeper interactions between the characters...I believe the experience of receiving such strong criticism (much, if not all, justified) and actually taking it to heart and reworking the book has been one of the most powerful learning experiences I've undertaken as a writer....”

I liked the first edition of the story and I like this one even more. It gets a recommendation from me. I’d rate it a 7 out of 10.